In my past post, Using CLEAR To Clear Airport Security -- This Is Efficient?, I covered what a joke it was that after being biometrically verified as myself, I still had to show the TSA a picture ID. In an email today from CLEAR, it sounds like that hassle is going away -- along with other promised improvements. In writing this up, I was also amazed to discover that competing registered traveler programs will be coming.

From the newsletter:

We have persuaded TSA to drop what we considered the illogical requirement that Clear members need to present a photo identification along with their biometrically-secure Clear cards to pass through security. When this change is implemented, you will no longer need to present a separate photo ID. Instead, the agency has now agreed that it will allow us to place your digital photos (which we captured when you enrolled) on your Clear cards. This is a practical compromise; we'll simply be issuing you a new card with your photo on it in the coming weeks, at our expense, so you won't have to use a second ID. (However, until then please remember to bring that other photo ID.)

Now if only I could convince CLEAR of the illogical requirement that I carry a card with me when I have always in my possession my eyes and fingers, which they use to verify that I'm me.

Seriously, continue to be amazed that in the UK, I walk into a phone booth-like area, put my eyes into a Mr. Spock-style Star Trek-like scanner, and less than 30 seconds later, I'm done. No passport needed. No smart chip card. Just my eyes. My Passport Fast Track: UK's IRIS Easily Beats US's Clear covers this more.

Of course, one plus that others who use CLEAR like is how the CLEAR staff carries your stuff through security. That's apparently going to get even better:

Our concierge program – which helps members remove cell phones and other belongings from their bags at the lanes and retrieve them when they are done – speeds throughput by 30% and has now expanded, with the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) encouragement. It will be at every Clear airport soon. This faster throughput helps make Clear more than a front of the line program. Clear lines move faster.

More airports are getting CLEAR. Again, from the newsletter:

• Denver is launching its Clear lanes this month.
• Oakland is launching its Clear lanes next month.
• Washington's Dulles and Reagan Airports are expected to launch Clear lanes in February or March.
• Atlanta has announced plans to launch a fast pass program this winter. That will mean 18 key airports accept Clear Cards.

You can find a full list of airports using the system on the CLEAR site here. There's still not that many, but the newsletter says CLEAR's putting a little money out to encourage things:

In our proposal to Atlanta Airport, we delivered on another promise of the program: We've offered to build and finance an entirely new lane for Clear members, with the cost of the extra TSA personnel reimbursed by Clear. We stand ready to do the same at other airports, and TSA is cooperating in this major step forward. As a result of all of this progress, we're now in discussions with many of the remaining major airports, which are considering the program.

I also liked this part:

New Technology: We've announced to the homeland security industry a $500,000 "Innovation Prize" as part of our continuing effort to invest in technology that will allow TSA to modify its security process for members (by allowing them, for example, to keep shoes and outer garments on or not to have to remove laptops from carry-on baggage). The prize will go to the first industry team that comes up with a TSA-approved technology enhancement that improves throughput by at least 15% while not compromising security. And that's on top of our ongoing effort, along with GE, to get GE's shoe scanner through the final approval and deployment process. All of this will enable your Clear lines to move still faster.

That kind of underscores the weird thing I found about CLEAR. At first, you think they're part of the entire TSA / security screening system. They're not. CLEAR's a private company approved by the US Department Of Homeland Security. Here's an early article about the push to privatize pre-screening systems. I don't have the time to dig into it more right now, in terms of how CLEAR emerged as the apparent brand leader over two other companies that also got contracts. But I get the impression that other companies could win contracts and conceivably, you could have an airport with two competing security systems.

Certainly this article about Oakland going with CLEAR talks about how it was chosen over FLO, which runs at other airports like Reno or, apparently, places like San Jose that already use CLEAR. I never remember seeing a FLO system there! Looking further at the site, FLO registration will open later this year.

Looking even further at the site, I started to get annoyed. Where will FLO be? Here's a list of "Registered Traveler" airports. But see, CLEAR is a registered traveler program -- I think this is mostly a list of where CLEAR operates and where FLO hopes to add its own kiosks.

Insane. Seriously, this is insane. It's going to be like wifi hotspot madness, where you won't know which system to go with. I don't want to have to pay for two or three of these systems, either. And I kind of feel like I'd rather have the government actually running these directly, rather than private companies.

Of course, I have to hope CLEAR does well, at this point. As I covered in my FlyClear Discount Code Benefits Everyone! post, being in the CLEAR referral program has been gaining me credit. At the moment, I've now earned enough credit so that my card doesn't expire until the middle of 2015! My goal is to see if I can get it up to 2065. I'll be 100 by then -- if I'm still doing a lot of traveling then, I'll pay the renewal fee myself!

If you're thinking of signing up, the code again is this:

SCA49148

Use that at Step 3, and you'll gain a free month of CLEAR for yourself, plus I get closer to my goal.

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